While the World has Stopped…

Two brothers doing what comes so naturally to them — farming.

The warm sun made it apparent this past Saturday that Spring finally decided to grace us with her presence.

Our souls needed that warm sun as a sign that better times are ahead as we live out COVID-19.

Who else needed that promise of sunshine and hope? Our farmers.

It’s what made my dad and two brothers jump into their tractors with excitement on Saturday morning, after finishing chores with their cows.

Corn planting was all that was on their Saturday agenda. They were going to test out the new corn planter they had spent hours servicing and prepping for the hundreds of acres that lay ahead for it to plant.

Planting every spring for farmers is like the playoffs beginning for any of our favourite sports teams — NBA, NHL, NFL — whatever sport you choose, it’s that ‘Binge watching, yelling-at-the-TV with beer in hand and friends in tow’ kind of feeling that excites farmers every spring. They get their tractors out in anticipation, and dust off the winter-blahs that I think every farmer will admit, are the hardest months on the farm when they aren’t able to live off the land.

As the sunny day wore on, some unexpected challenges started to sideline my family’s plant-cropping agenda. It wasn’t the weather this time, which is what usually sidelines farmers’ plans. It was the new corn planter — she decided to not have her best day when they had expected her too and needed her too.

Its the same feeling as getting a new car and pulling out of the car lot, while you watch the car salesperson wave goodbye to you in your rear-view mirror, only to have the car’s ‘Check Engine’ light come on as soon as you turn onto the highway.

That feeling of promise that so quickly fades to sinking discouragement.

As I approached my two brothers working on the corn planter, mid-field on that warm afternoon, it made me stop and park a few hundred feet back, to capture the most beautiful photo.

That light-blue, wispy-clouds in the sky, gorgeous first warm day of Spring, provided the perfect backdrop to two brothers hard at work, working together on the one thing that stood between them and their soon-to-be planting future — the blue Kinze corn planter pulled by that recognizable John Deere green tractor.

The moment made me stop and soak it in as I tried to capture it so perfectly. I knew that as the big sister to these two brothers, I couldn’t possibly take a photo that properly captured that image, raw with all its feelings and emotions:

Appreciation. Fondness. Proud. Respect. Love.

Despite all the promise that warm day offered and the hope my brothers had to begin planting, they didn’t give up when the challenge presented itself.

They wouldn’t let that planter stand in their way.

To know that for these two young men, for their foreseeable future for the next few months as planting gets underway, weekends included, they’ll be working extra long days, spending time away from their young children and wives to plant what our world needs — planting the seeds now that we and our animals will benefit from, when crops are harvested later this fall.

In that moment, I wish I could have transplanted my dad and mom in my place, to watch their two sons working so harmoniously together. It would have provided a moment of reassurance to them, that regardless of anything else they’ve accomplished in life, they’re imparting the best qualities of life onto their children:

Teamwork. Creativity. Problem Solving. Hard work. Resiliency. Optimism.

They could have watched in that moment and known, that the future they worked so hard to create in preserving our family farm, is being passed to their fifth-generation farming sons in very capable hands.

If I could freeze this moment in time, I would have.

At least I will always have the photo to remind me of how, during a global pandemic of unexpected social distancing, I got to watch this simple yet beautiful relationship between two brothers doing something so natural to them — farming… together.

While the rest of our world feels like it has stopped right now, there are some things that can fortunately continue…. Planting, family and legacy.

The good news? #Plant20 is now thankfully underway.